Malibu escapes Beach Bummer list

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Topanga Beach is the closest beach to Malibu that made the Top Ten Beach Bummer list.

El Pescador and two others land Heal the Bay’s coveted “Honor Roll.” However, some Malibu beaches still need improvement and Topanga makes the “Beach Bummer” list.

By Paul Sisolak / Special to The Malibu Times

Malibu has escaped environmental watchdog group Heal the Bay’s Top 10 Beach Bummer list, but, according to the report, the city’s beaches were consistently a mixed bag, while neighboring Topanga State Beach fared the worst, earning no higher than four Fs and landing a spot on the “Beach Bummer List” as one of the worst beaches in California.

Heal the Bay’s annual Beach Report Card assigns grades, A through F, up and down the West Coast and to 456 California beaches monitored and tested for their water quality and pollution during both the wet and dry seasons of 2010 and 2011. Beaches are tested by the State Department of Health Services.

In Malibu, Nicholas and Castlerock Beaches, as well as El Pescador State Beach received top marks with As.

Surfrider Beach in Malibu received mostly failing grades, and Paradise Cove, three Fs and one D. Others, like Zuma and Puerco Beaches, had varying grades depending on the season.

But El Pescador, Pena Creek at the Las Tunas County Beach, and the Malibu Colony Fence also made the report card’s coveted Honor Roll of beaches with the highest water quality year-round.

Heal the Bay Executive Director Mark Gold said there’s a good explanation for determining why the trio made its list of top honors.

“It’s pretty much a clean area,” he said. “Almost always when we see beaches getting perfect or really, really high scores, it’s because there are no runoff sources.”

Likewise, some of the lower ranking shores in Malibu are near storm drains and creeks, and absorb runoff, usually heavy rains, which increases the bacteria count in the water, mostly courtesy of kelp wrack and algae. As a result of a wetter-than-usual year as the focus of the study, most Southern California beaches scored lower than average, said Michael Grimmer, Heal the Bay’s Beach Report Card manager.

“Malibu has it kind of all going on,” he said. “Usually what we’ll see is a mixture. Beaches that do great even in wet weather are becoming less and less common in Southern California.”

On the whole, Heal the Bay’s study indicated that most Southern California beaches, from Santa Barbara to San Diego counties, do well in dry weather, scoring 91 percent A’s and Bs, better than the state average. But because only half of the same beaches received just 50 percent in the C and D range during wet weather, the study declares that California, and Malibu is no exception, could do better in reducing runoff that leads to high bacteria counts.

“Malibu’s water quality did substantially worse than the rest of the Santa Monica Bay,” Gold said, “and a lot of that has to do with the fact that it’s more susceptible to a wet season. I think the grades show that the maintenance options are really significant and need to be stayed on top of.”

For Malibu, the Beach Report Card says that Paradise Cove’s drop in letter grade from a B to D in last year’s dry season was a disappointment, considering the recent installation of a treatment facility.

“This was surprising due to the completion of the long overdue wastewater treatment facility and sewers at the Paradise Cove Mobile Home Park, and the installation of a new dry weather runoff treatment facility at the bottom of the watershed,” quoted the study.

According to the report card, owners of the mobile home park had been issued in 2009 a $1.65 million fine from the Regional Water Board over the runoff issue, but that was later reduced to $54,500 after an administrative error.

“We’re hoping to see some improvement there this summer,” Grimmer said.

The study also devoted space to explaining that low scores for Marie Canyon were due to similar filtration issues.

“There are no surprises” in the beach report card, said Malibu Mayor John Sibert in a phone message. “Our stormwater treatment facilities are treating the water, and clean it coming out, but when it goes through the beach, it gets loaded with bacteria. There are no simple solutions to these problems.”

Board members from the local Surfrider chapter did not return phone calls seeking comment on results of the report card.

Due to former Gov. Schwarzenegger’s cut of $1 million in beach monitoring funds, the report card stated, monitoring was made possible through grant monies and locally sourced funds. The State Water Resources Control Board, it said, has already committed more than $984,000 to continue testing through the end of this year.

In the report card’s executive summary, beachgoers are advised that swimming and recreating in water graded low due to high bacteria counts are at an increased risk of stomach flu, nausea, skin rashes, eye infections and respiratory illnesses.

This year’s beach report card can be viewed online at www.healthebay.org or www.beachreportcard.org